I had about 31 cousins evenly split on mother & fathers' sides, regular
visits with half of them until we moved to FtWayne. I'm not sure how many
my niece & nephew have on their father's side, but none on their mother's
side. They did spend some time with cousins growing up though.

To: <gardenchat@hort.net>
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2007 2:14 PM
Subject: Re: [CHAT] OT - If I can get through this - update

You're right, Zem. When I was a kid, I always enjoyed getting together
with cousins. But, I think, my generation got very mobile [for a lot of
reasons] and moved away, splintering the tribe. I don't think any of my
kids have ever so much as met any of their cousins.

On Jul 31, 2007, at 2:47 PM, Zemuly Sanders wrote:

Auralie, I'm just happy to hear you survived. It's very unfortuntate
that your sons do not get along because some of my best childhood
memories are of visiting with cousins. I don't think, however, that
children do that very much anymore.

Well, once more I got through it. Things have held together pretty
well.
My #1 son showed up Friday, a day earlier than expected, but #2 son
didn't
come that day as he had said he would. I was expecting him to bring his
son

and stepson - both about 20, and his two teen-aged stepdaughters, so had

cooked a huge hamburger and pasta casserole. There's still a lot of it
left,
though folks have snacked on it all weekend. #3 son and family showed
up
Friday night, so I moved the chicken-salad and gazpacho I had planned
for

the next night up to Friday night.

Saturday, the party at Teatown went very well though it got off to a
slow

start

because #1 son's wife, daughter and boy-friend who flown in from
Seattle,
didn't get in until 3:30 AM, and #2 son somehow got lost with all his
crew
and ended up going halfway down to the city - you'd think he had never
been
here before, instead of growing up here. Anyway, Reka, my Thai friend
and
Claire, a "floral stylist" friend made a terrific presentation. The
Teatown

staff

had been most helpful and had sent a large bunch of flowers, but Claire
had

really gone overboard, as did Reka. There were about 40 people, a good
number of whom took the various tours Chet had arranged for. There had

been rain in the morning, but the skies cleared and there was a good
breeze

to relieve the humidity and 80 degree temperature.
Then, since we had cancelled the party at the house, we had only family

for dinner and the evening. Claire stopped by, but didn't stay long.
Somehow
the house seemed about as full as it could be with the 16 family
members.

Thank goodness, they all stayed pretty civil. The brothers had not been
together since #3 son's wedding 11 years ago, and #2 son has a different
wife and family since then, so there was some reacquainting to be done.
The two youngest grandchildren - Connor at 5 and Cate at 2, kept people
amused. My older granddaughter and one of #2 son's stepdaughters are

both ardent horsewomen, as are their mothers, and they had not met
before,
so that kept one sector pretty well occupied. I stayed in the kitchen
most

of the time, so don't really know what went on except that noone came to
blows though there were some loud voices a few times. I put food on as
quickly as I could, because that always seems to improve their tempers.
The amount of food they consumed was impressive. I still had a large

bowl of chicken-avocado salad; another of potato salad; and I had
astonished
my favorite butcher, from whom I never buy beef, by asking for a 5-lb.
rib-eye
roast. I really expected to have leftovers for hash. There wasn't
enough

left

to make a roast-beef sandwich. I had to hustle around and refill the
large

salad bowl, and then they demolished an ice-cream cake from Carvel.

I must say I heaved a huge sigh of relief when they all finally left. I
was
glad to see each of them, but the whole thing has been a bit much,
especially

with the other events of the week.
We are supposed to go down to Cape May tomorrow for a couple of days.

#2 son and family have taken a condo there for the week. I'd rather
just stay
home and try to get things back on track here, but Chet is keen to go. I
love
the beach, but do sunburn badly. I find 2-year-old Cate is a charmer,
but
5-year-old Connor is a terror. It's not trendy to discipline children
these

days,

it seems.I don't really feel that several days in a condo with them will
be

relaxing.
Thanks for listening to all my ramblings.
Auralie
In a message dated 07/30/2007 10:04:46 AM Eastern Standard Time,
holmesbm@usit.net writes:
I'm just back from a trip, catching up on email. Hope all is ok now. So
sorry you lost the tree, plants, and must have roof repairs and so glad

that the tree didn't hit the house directly. While they are wonderful
in

providing shade and reducing temperatures, they certainly can cause
problems when they fail. Are things getting back in order?

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